Not from Yong and I if that’s what the title makes you think . They are from our brides and grooms. Recently we have received quite a few baby news, and I just can’t help the urge to write down a few words. I would like to thank all our brides and grooms for staying in touch with us, and sharing with us what’s going on in their lives and their wonderful news of bundles of joy. Thank you for always remembering us more than just the folks who took my wedding pictures. You have kindly befriended us and sometimes make us feel like extended families. Whenever we receive such an email, it always warms our heart. It is moments like this that make us feel this whole business and all the hard work and effort goes into it is truly worthy it. We want to thank you ALL.

We would also like to give our best wishes to those new babies, Tina and Thomas’ baby boy, Sarah and Jawad’s baby girl, Laura and Andre’s angel girl. We are SO SO happy for you guys! We wish they all have a blessed life ahead of them. And Tina, Sarah and Laura, happy mother’s day!

We know that some of our brides and grooms are trying to have babies this year. You are in our prayers. If it is taking longer than what you had hoped for, just keep in mind God knows when is the best timing and he has the best prepared for you.

To all our brides and grooms, we would like to say THANK YOU!

Born in Beijing, I left my hometown for college in 1992, and then came to the States a few years later. In my mind, Beijing still has horse-drawn carts full of farm produce sharing roads with bicyclers, and ice pop is only 1 cent each. “Yong, you are so outdated now that I can’t even believe you ever lived here”, an old buddy in China once commented. Yeah, everything I know about China has been sealed in a precious time capsule of the country in its 1990’s. Bin and I love the opportunities and freedom US provides, yet deep down, we know where we came from will always be part of who we are. Each year, we celebrate Chinese New Year, and we make it a priority for our two kids — these 2nd generation Chinese immigrants — to learn Mandarin.

Shirley and Norman, both descendants of Chinese immigrants, got married in San Francisco. It was a full day with two tea ceremonies, a Christian wedding, and a dinner banquet in a Chinese restaurant. Throughout the day, I witnessed some Chinese traditions that I have only seen in movies or heard from my parents. These traditions that our bride and groom managed to include – in their busy wedding schedule planned to the minutest details – must be the custom their parents or grandparents brought in when they first landed on this foreign soil. The early Chinese immigrants, mostly coming during the “Gold Rush”, worked hard and lived frugally.

“The Chinese did not only mine for gold, but took on jobs such as cooks, peddlers, and storekeepers. In the first decade after the discovery of gold, many had taken jobs nobody else wanted or that were considered too dirty”
– Immigration: The Living Mosaic of People, Culture, and Hope

Throughout the years, they overcame many obstacles and preserved their culture distinction and heritage. Remember the redwood trees of the northern California coast? They are able to remain upright for millennia by growing close together with other redwood trees, intermingling root systems. I believe to Shirley and Norman’s parents, the traditions and values are their root systems, through which Chinese immigrants connected, endured, survived, and flourished to become a significant part of US ethnic diversity. While young folks in China nowadays are westernizing themselves in many aspects of their life including their wedding style, it is amazing to see how Shirley and Norman had kept the Chinese customs in their wedding for yet another generation.

Here are some pictures from their day.